Review of Dreams with Sharp Teeth (2008) by Spencer S — 21 Jul 2011
Creative personalities, however bright their stars gleam, collapse under the weight of the world's pressures. Harlan Ellison, the brightest of all these literary stars, takes these impossible problems and swallows them whole.
So is the subject of this insightful documentary, centering on the giant, with awards in the genres of sci-fi, mystery, and political commentary. Not only has this pillar written 70 novels, hundreds of short stories, nonfiction, teleplays, and screenplays, but is one of the most interesting human beings I have ever seen.
Following his life in the limelight as an intellectual of unparalleled comparison, and his early years as a downtrodden Jewish teen in anti-Semitic Ohio, we are given a complicated maze in which to extract the personage of Ellison.
Not only is he against all forms of bullsh*t, but was a figure in the civil rights movement, and a mouthpiece for education. Putting the praises aside, the trailer reveals the true payoff, which is that Ellison is also an intolerable narrator of his own life.
He has awesome (and I mean that as in awe inspiring) knowledge to lay down in commentary throughout the film, speaking of what it is to be a writer, a famous personality, and an independent entity among the Hollywood elite and cultural milieu.
He is loud, obnoxious, and at times reviles you, but is so entertaining and uncaring of the views of populist America, that not to appreciate his audacity feels like heresy. In the midst of all that prophecy he lays down, he is also a bitter, old, angry man, but with the credentials he has, it's hard to imagine him being anything resembling timid.
He is, by all accounts, the most original person alive. Peppering his own narration is that of Robin Williams, Neil Gaiman, and Dan Simmons, great artists who not only see him as a glorious person, but the human he so truly embodies.
This, is a film you must see, and cannot fully be explained. A film where creativity blooms, ripe to pick for the eager mind.
This review of Dreams with Sharp Teeth (2008) was written by Spencer S on 21 Jul 2011.
Dreams with Sharp Teeth has generally received positive reviews.
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